


It's a Secret

by Dire_M



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Light Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-05
Updated: 2018-02-05
Packaged: 2019-03-14 01:17:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13582935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dire_M/pseuds/Dire_M
Summary: "It was supposed to be a group outing, they’re always supposed to be group outings. But once again Alya and Nino disappeared leaving Adrien and Marinette alone."





	It's a Secret

It was supposed to be a group outing, they’re always supposed to be group outings. But once again Alya and Nino disappeared leaving Adrien and Marinette alone.

They’re at a night market this time. The streets lit up with lanterns and string lights. Adrien is having a lot of fun with Marinette though, going stall to stall, sampling food, browsing trinkets, food, more food.

He steers them down towards a quieter part of the river. Leading her to an empty bench. Private. More romantic. They’re Parisians after all.

The night is proceeding just so, as many nights with Marinette have.

He comments how the lights (or the river, or the colours of the sky) are pretty. Like he’s supposed to.

She agrees.

He tells her he had a great time tonight. Like he’s supposed to.

She feels the same.

He lets the evening fall into a comfortable silence. Like he’s supposed to.

She sighs prettily. Wistful.

He takes her hand, stroking her skin absently with his thumb. Like he’s supposed to.

She lets him.

He leans in. Like he’s supposed to.

And she is pulled towards him as if magnetised.

He turns away.

Oh.

 

“I’m sorry!” he’s so mad with himself. He shouldn’t have let it get this far. “I’m sorry, I can’t. I just- I-” He was panicking. He suddenly felt out of breath, constricted, and trapped. He wanted to focus on Marinette, really he did, he’s hurt her tonight he knows. But dammit, he doesn’t want this constructed scenario. Not for himself. Not for Mari.

It had been months of these group outings with Alya and Nino, or rather without them. His friends were happily dating and he had easily guessed they wanted the same for him and Marinette. He went along with it because it meant opportunities to experience things with his friends. At least with just Mari. She didn’t push, she was pleasant and never overstepped her bounds. And not too long ago he realised, she liked him.

“Hey, it’s okay! Oh Adrien, it’s okay…” Adrien hadn’t even realised he had his hands pressed to his face until Marinette was gently prying away his fingers and gently pressing a satin handkerchief to his cheek.

“I’m really sorry, Mari!” He covered his face again, this time with both arms, ashamed of his emotional outburst.

“Adrien, you have nothing to be sorry for! I should apologise!”

At this Adrien’s arms came down, “What? No! What for? I was leading you on!”  
Marinette seemed as if she was going to object before thinking better of it. She looked towards the water, then after a while looked down at her own hands as they wrung her kerchief.  
“You did nothing wrong.” She said at last. “In fact you did everything right. You’ve been a perfect gentleman. You did everything you were supposed to do.”

He doesn’t know what to say to that, is this an awkward silence between them? He wishes he had words, he also wishes this friendship could have worked out better. That he could please her. That he didn’t have a futile crush on someone else. Someone he was beginning to accept didn’t feel the same. Cool fingers brush over his left wrist and he is pulled from his thoughts. Like a tether, grounding him back to the present, with Marinette.

“I’m sorry that I made you feel guilty or pressured into doing things you didn’t want to do. I should have realised this was making you uncomfortable. I’ve been a bad friend. I’ll tell Nino and Alya to stop too, okay?”

Adrien shut his eyes tightly against the prickling of fresh tears. At his side Marinette was panicking.

“Oh~! Oh no! Adrien, I’m sorry! I’m sorry. I- Do you? Do you want to go home? I can walk you home? Or I can call your driver? Um!”

“No! I want to stay. I just-” Adrien’s eyes were still closed but he reaches out blindly to find her hand. “I’m okay. You’re not a bad friend at all, Marinette. You, Nino, Alya. You’re all better friends than I could have hoped for.”

He takes a moment to collect himself. He cleans up with Marinette’s handkerchief, which she rinsed with cool bottled water.

 

“There’s a girl I work with,” he begins, not daring to look at Marinette should (her heart) his resolve break.

“I’ve had a crush on her for a long time, sometimes I think she might accept me, but most of the time she makes it very clear she wants to keep things professional.”

“It’s a secret. I haven’t even told Nino.” He still doesn’t look up, but he knows Marinette is still listening. “It’s just… liking her was one of the first things I did on my own, for myself. I liked her because I wanted to. Not because other people thought it would be good for me. When I’m with her I get to be the person… I think I really am.”

Adrien cringed, partly because that last part sounded silly, partly because he just implied that he- That with Marinette he wasn’t-

He had to look up, he needed to know how Marinette was feeling.

She was staring across the water with a pensive expression. She took in a shuddering breath before turning to him.

“I really haven’t been that good a friend after all. I’m sorry I made you feel like you couldn’t be yourself around me.”

“It’s not your fault, I was just afraid you wouldn’t like me. That you’d stop being my friend? I wanted you to think I was cool or something? ...I don’t know anymore.”

“Adrien, I already think you’re cool. But I do want to get to know you under the designer clothes.” Marinette’s smile was sweet and disarming, for all of two seconds before she realised what she inferred.

“OH GOD! I MEANT! THAT IS I- I-!  
I MEANT PERSONALLY! I WANT TO BE PERSONALLY UNDER YOUR CLOTHES!  
NO! SHOOT! EMOTIONALLY! EMOTIONALLY!  
NOT UNDER YOUR CLOTHES BUT INSIDE YOU-WHAT?!”

 

Adrien cracked up at Marinette’s hysterics.

“Oh gosh, Marinette! So lewd!” he pressed his hands to his face in mock embarrassment. “You haven’t even asked me out on a proper date yet! What will I tell my father when he finds out you took my innocence!”

“Nooooooo! Adriiiieeeeen~!” Marinette’s high pitched whine made Adrien double over with laughter.

“Hahaha! You know-” Adrien wiped away tears of mirth this time, “I’m serious about the date.”

“Huh? But what about-?”

“I want to go on a real date, one we organise ourselves. Not-” he waves a hand, gesturing at the entire evening, scrunching his nose, “-not whatever this is. Our own date.”

Even in the evening shadows he was certain he could see Marinette’s intensifying blush.

“Y-you mean-?” Marinette’s eyes are intently looking into his as she points back and forth between him and herself.

“Well? Are you going to ask me?”

“Oh-Oh! Uhm, Adrien? Would you like to go on a date with me?” Though less frantic, Marinette managed to look more embarrassed now than she did earlier.

“Yes! I would love to! One condition. It’s a secret! You can’t tell Alya and I won’t tell Nino. This is a pure Adrinette date!”

“Uhm what?”

“Adrinette! It’s our names combined!”

"Haha! Okay, better than Brangelina!"

**Author's Note:**

> Yo portentous-offerings from Tumblr here. Figured I should make use of AO3 since I have an account.


End file.
